I am of two minds on the game, and I don't know which path to take. So let's try them both. On the one hand, Saturday afternoon was a pretty damn good day. Beautiful fall Saturday. Very nice 1:30 start time (allows leaving Fairfield in the morning to be way, way less rushed, but still allows me to take my wife out for dinner) without TV telling us when to start. Very good crowd (to my eyes the largest we've had since HCBD arrived). And -- and no one is giving us credit for this -- our first OOC win against a P-5 opponent since I believe four years ago when we went down to College Park and Nick Williams returned a punt for a TD (don't go there -- this is my glass half full paragraph). Do I think UVA is a good football team? Heck no. But this game was supposed to be close and it's just one that we had to have and we got. And let's be honest with ourselves -- to me, and I'm sure to many others, getting wins against the 3 ACC teams on our schedule is more important to me than any 3 games in our conference you could pick out. And, while the game was boring (o.k., unbearably boring) for most of it, the 4th quarter had more twists and turns than a good spy novel and ended with the good guys winning. Plus, Arkeel Newsome finally showed flashes of the player we had last year, which shows hope for getting a running game going, and our D, for over half the game, was in its own, let the other team beat itself way, dominant. So I should have been happy when UVA mismanaged the clock at the end of the game in a way which made me ask if HCBD had spent the offseason studying tapes of Bronco Mendenhall (or vice versa) and we went to 2-1, with a clearly winnable home game against Syracuse coming up to get us to 3-1 overall and 2-0 against the ACC.
And yet, like the Maine game, I left the stadium more relieved and shaking my head than excited. Why? Because despite the outcome, I just watched too much of the same crap again. The lack of desire to return a punt (and the inability to then at least fair catch a higher percentage of them). The defense coming out uninspired or unprepared or something, and taking 20 minutes to look like a good defense. The inability of our staff to gets plays and personnel on the field quickly enough. I don't know if our TD play looked as bad on TV as it did live, but when Ron Jon got to the 1, setting up a short 2d and goal, the team got to the line of scrimmage and all looked to the bench for the play/personnel. No answer came for precious seconds. Finally, HCBD decided on something, started to put a personnel package in and then realized he didn't have time and stopped them. BS then got under center, called a play and got the play off just before getting a delay penalty while HCBD was unsuccessfully trying to get a TO. Real clown show stuff. Or the mismanagement of the clock, not just at the end of the game (where the FG should have come with about 50 seconds left if we ran on 2d and 6 from well within Puyol's range and just took the clock down under 5 seconds before each snap in the last two minutes) but at the end of the first half (when you get the ball at your 12 with 1:20 or so left in a defensive game, your first goal is to not give the other team another possession in good field position and we failed miserably). Or, starting series after series with BS trying to run the ball himself, even though they were clearly keying on him. What did BS go last week -- something like 23 for 26? And we somehow only throw 12 times in a first half when we can't move the ball at all? I have no problem with fun first coaches (sorry TDH) but that has to assume that your team is capable of running the ball first. Not just wasting time until the other team has opened up a lead and then opening up your offense. So combine all of this frustration with the fact that at the end of the game with the coaching and then the wide open middle on the 4th and 10 that almost cost us the game and it was a very, very exasperating win that didn't bring the joy it should have.
So I guess I'm going to stop talking about returning punts because it is just getting repetiive. The good news is that between our coverages and Bobby P's kicking, we're at least holding our own on specials. Wain didn't do as good a job as you'd like pinning them deep when he had the opportunity, but he for the most part avoided touchbacks and returns.
On D, I think that Obi, Joseph and Foley had really good days. To me, Watkins plays the run well but is lacking in coverage. I know he's young and may get there, but I hope we see much more of McAllister against Syracuse and Houston. John Green is doing a good job when he's on the field. And for the second straight week, Jamar Summers saved our bacon with the one huge takeaway (and it was a brilliant interception). As a unit, this is what a passive, conservative defense is. When the opponent executes really well, they will score against it. When they make mistakes, or throw the ball with less than absolute precision, we stop them. That bodes well against Syracuse, who should make their share of mistakes. Not so well against Houston and USF, but get me to 3-1 and then let me worry about that.
On offense, nice to see Beals get some time and make one nice play in the middle, and a really good game for Hergey. Obviously Thomas is our best player on offense by far, and had another big game, but the ball picked in the corner of the end zone -- while it shouldn't have been thrown (because Bloom and Thomas had both run to the same spot), Geremy Davis as a senior might make that play. On the OL, the reports were that Rutherford started at LG, and he seemed to be in most of the times I looked (dont' know if Vachery was out injured or limited injured or if Rutherford just got the nod). And, at least when Arkeel was in, we looked like we might be able to have a running game. Now, he had less than 10 touches and I think we are seeing him having been banged up and now getting to healthy. Adding a second real weapon alongside with Thomas may allow us to do things very differently on O. At least, that's my hope and I'm sticking to it.
So that's where we are. We haven't impressed anyone yet, but we're 2-1 while losing the turnover battles and making horrible clock management decisions. We will be favored at home Saturday and there is no reason we shouldn't get to 3-1 whether we get much better or not. And 3-1 was a good solid start (because the 2d third of the season will be tougher, with the last third giving us more opportunities). So while I'm frustrated by our play, we have not yet done anything that prevents us from getting to what would be a good solid season (in my mind, 7-5 with 3-0 against the ACC). So see everyone there on Saturday, and I hope our crowd is larger and noisier than last week's was. Go Huskies. Frustrating to watch or not, I'm ten toes in.
